2022 World Cup Qatar

IM21

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To use an NBA example - it's like Mavs without Dončić. A bunch of players that know how to play, but nobody being world class, nobody being a real leader.
Nah man, those players dont know how to play at all. On their own they are worse than Inter banter era team.
 

wera

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They are players that would be killing it in other leagues (and some, like McGee, are just too old). Don't let your love for Dončič blind you that he is a part of the problem as well, very good player, but holds the ball too much for other players to get into the game.


Well, anyway, this doesn't feel good. Inter players need to wake up.
 

brehme1989

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Inter players at World Cup are showing that we don't really have a big star in the team, a player that steps up when shit gets hard and that really has world class quality. It's gonna be great when they all come back and be even more deflated than they were.

How many such players exist and how many teams have them?

That's actually a general problem with this era, there's no stars anymore. We're relying on Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to do shit like this and Neymar who allegedly is top 5 is barely on Djalminha level.
 

crzdcolombian

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I get what you're saying here, and to a certain degree it makes sense, however you have to think about the sheer difference in quality between teams from the Middle East/Asia/North Africa and Europe/South America. Being more comfortable to a geographical location means nothing, look at SA players in Europe.

I don't think that is fair.... Argentina/Brazil/Big 8 Euro teams simply get calls that no other team is going to get.

Arabia and Japan did the impossible then lost to the weakest team in their groups. Ghana got robbed in the Portugal game with the weakest PK I have ever seen. Then the BS free kick offside goal that would never ever ever get called if Argentina did it. They have done it multiple times in qualifiers. Or the ref stops play and they score a goal while the other team is talking to the ref. It's shit that happens to team that aren't the top 8 that FIFA wants to win.

Godlike England couldn't beat the US.
 

ADRossi

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I've been thinking about how some of our best players are at home right now. Skriniar, Bastoni and obviously, Barella.

Inter players at World Cup are showing that we don't really have a big star in the team, a player that steps up when shit gets hard and that really has world class quality. It's gonna be great when they all come back and be even more deflated than they were.

To use an NBA example - it's like Mavs without Dončić. A bunch of players that know how to play, but nobody being world class, nobody being a real leader.
You're onto something. I think it speaks to the lack of creativity in this squad. Under Conte we transitioned to this team of grinta merchants who excel at beating you with relentless stamina and stubbornness. We don't have any players who are "special" when it comes to technical ability. We lack flair.

Football as a whole has trended this way, which is why your classic trequartista is dead. Players like Sneijder and Ozil are relics of a bygone era. Now everything is press, run, smash, grab.
 

Harpsabu

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Does anyone feel like migrant worker deaths have become an after thought at this world cup all because of lgbtq+ rights?

I feel like most people are more annoyed about lgbtq rights (that's certainly how it seems from the media), rather than 4000+ people being forced into slavery and death at the hands of Qatar to build the stadiums.

Bit shitty. Lgbtq+ rights are for sure an issue and should be high up there, but feels like the migrant workers are being forgot about a bit IMO. Hopefully I'm wrong.
 

brehme1989

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That's only what you get from a few countries that make a fuss about it.

I only see that as a subject when it is being ridiculed on Twitter.


At the moment it's all about the football elsewhere, though. Gay rights are at the bottom of the list for most of the world, whether there are games or not.
 

wera

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at least Qatar lost all 3 games, I guess

but yeah, I agree
 

Il Drago

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‘Fake fans’ are the future of international football​


On the eve of the Qatar World Cup, a video of about 20 men of south Asian origin dressed in England shirts went viral. The group were stumbling through “Three Lions”, the country’s unofficial football anthem, and bouncing up and down brandishing their England flags.

The footage attracted suspicion, with some labelling the group “fake fans”, perhaps hired by the tournament’s organisers to counter fears of a feeble atmosphere. After all, Qatar has sponsored supporters from all over the world to attend the event, as a thank you for their “engagement” in the run-up to the World Cup.

But in Doha, as in much of the world, football fandom is fluid. During this tournament I’ve seen plenty of families with split loyalties, especially among immigrant workers’ communities. Mum might be wearing a Brazil shirt and dad Germany’s black and white, while the kids sport the French navy of Les Bleus. Even some individuals appear divided — I spotted Saudi flags draped round the shoulders of Portugal and Argentina shirts.

To those who see football as a tribal pursuit, this form of fandom could seem an affront. If football is a matter of identity — personal or national — how can someone cheer for Argentina at 1pm, then don the yellow of rivals Brazil hours later?

But like it or not, this is the modern game. This World Cup has showcased a vision of football where national teams are more like brands that anyone can consume, and where preference can be based on mood or marketing. When Fifa talks about a “World Cup for everyone”, this is what it means in practice.

The collapse of the European Super League, an attempted breakaway project launched last year by 12 top clubs, was a victory for the tribal over the global. Fans broke into stadiums to protest, claiming that greed was ruining their beloved game, helping to precipitate the league’s unravelling.
But the longer-term trends point the other way. Many millions of fans around the world, from Singapore to Cincinnati, have made football into the huge business it is today. This season the English Premier League is set to generate £1.8bn in international broadcast income, surpassing the £1.7bn it gets from its home market. The clubs are owned by Saudi sovereign wealth, American private equity and Emirati royals.

And many fans in Qatar have no choice but to adopt another nation’s team. Bangladesh, India, Uganda, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines — none will play here, so the hundreds of thousands of workers from those countries are branching out. Others might have a team to follow, but with Qatar offering a one-off opportunity to watch multiple matches a day, even loyal fans are promiscuous on their days off.

As in the club game, individual players are the magnet. Young fans in particular know football through fantasy leagues, TikTok and video games, where talk revolves around who has the highest “pace” rating, not the shared triumphs and heartaches of the past.

The Portugal football team has 11.9mn followers on Instagram, while Cristiano Ronaldo — the team’s star player — has 506mn. Ronaldo is the football equivalent of the “Mona Lisa” — people flock from all over the world so they can tell folks back home they saw him in the flesh.
Shanvas, my Keralan Uber driver, put it well. When I asked one afternoon which team he was supporting, he told me he used to support Wayne Rooney. Now he follows Lionel Messi.

The accusation is that “fake fans” ruin the atmosphere. Passion, after all, cannot be counterfeited. But World Cups have always had tourist elements. On the Doha Metro, you can still see Japanese fans dressed as samurai warriors and spot a red Moroccan fez bobbing in a sea of Mexican sombreros.

Here, I ran into four fans decked out in Dutch tangerine, complete with face-painted stripes of the Netherlands flag. They were from Cairo. The Egyptian team had failed to qualify, but with the tournament near by, they decided to fly in for a week. They planned to be back on the Metro the next day, but dressed in the blue and white of Argentina.

A similar scene plays out on the vast fleet of fan buses. That’s where I met Abdullah, an engineer from Riyadh. He was in Doha to follow Saudi Arabia, but that evening was heading off to support Spain against Costa Rica.

Within moments of our meeting, he was asking me for an update on Harry Kane’s ankle. When I told him I was a Crystal Palace supporter, he told me that star player Wilfried Zaha had great talent, but that his “mentality is not good”. Even the clichés have gone global.

 

IM21

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every game there's a clear favorite, but already tomorrow we shall see if Nederland is better than USA.
 

pupivn

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Big teams are spread equally in both branches, not like 2018.

England repay what they had in 2018, Senegal, then could be France, then Portugal/Spain, not easy as Colombia, Sweden and Croatia like 2018.

There is a streak that at least one Inter Milan player being in final since 1982. I think Bayern Munich has same streak as well.
 

IM21

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Big teams are spread equally in both branches, not like 2018.

England repay what they had in 2018, Senegal, then could be France, then Portugal/Spain, not easy as Colombia, Sweden and Croatia like 2018.

There is a streak that at least one Inter Milan player being in final since 1982. I think Bayern Munich has same streak as well.
yeap. and all of the Inter players left are in the top 3 brackets. I know most people see Argentina making it, but i actually think Croatia has a big chance. Brozo is also the only good Inter player at the tournament.
 

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The record will hold, as Denzel Dumfries will score a hattrick in the WC final.
 

Fitzy

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Put $5 on Australia beating Argentina, Netherlands, Brazil and (probably) France to win it all. See boys, this is how you pay off a mortgage.
 

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